Paulo Nazareth: Algebra

Pinault Collection presents “Algebra”, a major solo exhibition by Paulo Nazareth curated by Fernanda Brenner. Drawing on the significant presence of the artist’s work in the Pinault Collection and including previously unseen works, the exhibition brings together more than twenty years of artistic practice.

The title “Algebra” derives from the Arabic al-jabr, referring to the setting of broken bones, and is approached here as a method for engaging with historical fractures. Through walks across the Americas, the Caribbean and the African continent, Nazareth examines the structural racial and colonial violence that shaped contemporary borders, proposing forms of knowledge rooted in relation and ancestral wisdom rather than extraction and colonial mapping.

A line of salt runs through the exhibition, marking a threshold between what is visible and what remains submerged. Gradually, it suggests the geometry of a ghost ship, recalling the tumbeiro, the Portuguese term for slave ships that crossed the Atlantic. The exhibition unfolds not as a chronological or thematic survey but through stations within an ongoing art-life practice. Among the works presented is “Notícias de América”, which condenses the artist’s ten-month walk from Brazil to New York through photographs, texts and worn Havaianas. The exhibition also revisits the artist’s 2013 activation of Veneza, Minas Gerais, establishing a dialogue between Venice and its Brazilian namesake. Set within a former customs house, the project considers what systems of trade, measurement and record-keeping have historically left unregistered. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue published in collaboration with Marsilio Arte.